Nurses, Safety and Feeling Safe

Has anyone out there heard of a program like this one? It sounds great: a “Safety Cafe”, which provides a safe place for health professionals to trade experiences and gather support. Projects like the Nurse Advocacy Association are trying to build such a venue online. Do you know of any others? Would you particiapate? If not, why?

Safety is a very important theme in the healthcare branch. Safety is important for patients/clients, but also for employees. Today, I am at a safety café* –which is freely translated from the Dutch word-. A safety café is organized with the purpose to talk about personal experiences in an informal setting.

Healthcare professionals share their knowledge, experiences and talk about how they can improve the safety within their organization. Rules, protocols and guidelines are important, but a personal story of a colleague is far more powerful. Some recognize the situation, some are motivated to change their behavior and sometimes it helps by overcoming an unpleasant experience.

I am standing at a bar table together with three healthcare professionals, we listen carefully to their colleague who talks about the experience that sometimes keeps him awake at night. He is nervous, understandable, it is hard to talk about a situation where you…

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2 comments

Yes, I would participate. I wish we had a private place online at which we could share stories and experiences. Nurses need a place to go to decompress and obtain support. The health and safety of the nurse — right after an incident and even weeks or months later — is simply not a priority within most health care settings today.

Nurses need to speak out and, above all, document and submit their concerns and suggestions to improve safety and security to their immediate supervisors IN WRITING. If action is not taken, send the documentation to the next admin on the ladder. Keep going up the chain of command.

I CANNOT stress strongly enough the need to put your concerns and suggestions IN WRITING! Think of it like a nurses’ note. If it isn’t documented, it didn’t happen.